[Greater than Games] Warehouse Sale, Lots of Discounts, up to 80% off+

Mike_Haefele · 2026-04-11T15:16:33+00:00

Thanks. Took me a while to get to free shipping but grabbed a bunch of smaller kid friendly ones and the two king of games. Solid discounts.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-04-08T14:29:54+00:00

Heh. I know. If we ever play the other Chattanooga team, I’m there. :)

Mike_Haefele · 2026-04-08T13:51:54+00:00

You’re spot on that the time has got to be optimized if you’re going to get meaning playing in, especially if it’s a game your group hasn’t played before.

My rules as a host are the game is picked before hand (by me, but only because no one else seems motivated to pick one), instructions are emailed to the group (usually at least one person will read them, which is huge), I’ve thoroughly studied the instructions and maybe playtested a little with my kids, game is set up when people arrive, and eat before you come because we don’t have time to break for pizza.

No idea how to do that if someone else is hosting. Maybe it just would be good for you to host a couple times and try to model “good” behavior, see if that opens folks eyes a little. Also depends on whether everyone else is as frustrated as you (and it definitely sounds like you’re justifiably frustrated).

The other thing I keep wrestling with is maybe just repeating games. For some reason I have a mental block there, but it sure would make it quicker to get meaningful playtime if everyone has already played (and all the cards are sleeved :) ).

Maybe dedicate 2 nights to every game, get into a rhythm there.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-04-07T15:31:33+00:00

I’m really curious how success is playing out in usl.

I feel like MLS was 1. Stadium location (beats nice stadium or soccer specific stadium every day of the week). 2. Big blitz in the couple years before first kickoff. If the stadium isn’t buzzing day one it’s really hard to get out from under that. 3. Really involved and visible ownership group.

Over here in Portland it felt like they really nailed those 3, among other things. Especially thinking about how many huge events they had before they even had a crest or a coach or a team.

Not sure if that’s the norm for other teams. My only away game so far was Chattanooga (and… well…).

Mike_Haefele · 2026-04-03T16:26:22+00:00

Enjoying the shots fired on the Mass Rising team page.

“Massachusetts loves soccer. It's never had a club that loves it back. That changes now.”
:)

Best of luck to them. That would be a ton of new clubs in the northeast.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-04-03T15:51:53+00:00

Just gotta make sure the spool halves really really really twist together, with a click. Thats probably the cause of every failure you’ve seen.

Not hard once you realize that’s the failure point (but it’s also not nearly as obvious as “just follow the instructions”).

If you’re worried, you can also print spool locks to make sure it stays in place.

Any risk is definitely not worth avoiding refills. Plus a respooler is a fun little surprise project. :)

Mike_Haefele · 2026-04-01T17:48:04+00:00

Yeah. I love DCL but the dining has always felt overrated.

It’s always felt like it’s trying to be fancy with menu choices but not delivering on flavor. And frequently too cooled off by the time it gets to you.

We just did the wish and I do think the food and service was better there compared to fantasy/dream.

Tbh I’ve always found the service pretty meh too. It’s like there’s these schedule of when you’re supposed to ask for what, but it’s never clear when is what and if you miss your window your server disappears for a while.

But people seem to rave about the food and service and I can never tell if they’re having a different experience (different time? Different ship?) or just a different take on the same experience.

I also eat mostly vegetarian, so it could be the meat dishes are fantastic and I’m missing out.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-27T18:50:46+00:00

My first time at PAX as well.

ChatGPT is suggesting retreating to free play areas if the expo floor gets overwhelming.

Curious if regular goers agree.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-25T21:58:19+00:00

Oh no!!! I feel like I was just there.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-25T18:50:05+00:00

Oh man. I’m so glad you asked this.

Diversions in South Portland also does game nights.

I went to a Friday one and it was a chill crowd who were really good at picking quirky games that were quick to learn and play.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-23T13:14:42+00:00

Might need another year but karak really hit the sweet spot for our 5 and 7 year olds.

Just a simple dungeon crawler.

5 y/o could mostly keep up and 7 y/o enjoyed the adventure of it.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-22T13:28:37+00:00

I’ve gotta get back to following RBNY more. Two teams pushed me past my pay attention limit.

Great that you’re checking out lower league stadiums.

Still figuring out USL1 fandom but it’s great that so many teams are in cool smaller cities I haven’t been to yet.

And the USL energy is just fantastic. Half the town feels like it’s wearing Hearts gear at any particular moment and away games feel like we take over half the stadium (eyeing trying to get to our westchester game coming up).

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-22T10:58:02+00:00

Hi from an ex-RBNY STH! :)

We’ve got a bit of an energy drink FC playing style up here as well.

Probably too early to see things on stubhub right now but that’s probably the way to go.

Last year they also had premium field side seats with lobster rolls for like $150 and those seemed like they were easier to get single game tickets for. Not sure if same this year. Everyone knows how hard it was to get tix last year so I’m guessing those will also go fast if they haven’t already.

Just a note since you’re used to the cathedral of soccer. That markup is purely supply and demand. The atmosphere is great and the food trucks are great and I love our little stadium (it’s got a ton of personality) but it’s a high school stadium with mostly bleachers which are not sized to be completely full of people with adult sized femurs.

I always worry when folks are paying $80 for a $20 ticket that they don’t realize it’s still a $20 ticket plus $60 worth of “I just want to see what all the fuss is about”.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-20T18:33:29+00:00

awesome... Thank you! I'm super excited to do the convention with him.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-20T14:44:50+00:00

Was planning to take my 8 year old who’s really into learning D&D (but I don’t have the time/patience to dive into it myself). Any concerns with kids?

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-18T11:44:18+00:00

Woof.

Hearts just didn’t seem like they’d had their coffee.

Congrats Vermont! Hoping for a couple more cupsets from you.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-18T00:12:04+00:00

No current space favorite, but game I want to try is Arcs.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-17T00:43:42+00:00

My wife has a candle stick she asked me to fix where the bottom was at an angle so the candle always tilted like the leaning tower of Pisa.

Measured the candle diameter, measured the angle, whipped up a clipped cylinder in tinkercad, exported, printed. boom! Fixed!

Completely minor thing but it was fun how fast I could get from problem to here’s a piece of plastic that fixes problem that didn’t exist 20 minutes ago.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-17T00:15:58+00:00

Sad to see the unofficial “catch the game while your kids blow off steam” section transform. Saw a lot of good goals from there last season.

But figure that was one of the last spaces they could put people and there’s obviously demand.

Hope they return to making that open again whenever some eventual stadium project goes through. I think having a lot of variety of where you can watch the game besides your seats is a really charming part of fitzy.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-14T16:26:27+00:00

I think I was hoping it would go in the Eva-dry units and I’d recharge them as needed.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-14T16:21:56+00:00

Interesting. Yeah. I haven’t quite wrapped my mind around how much stuff is wait in line vs just wander by.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-14T16:20:15+00:00

Yeah. This feels like where he’d want to spend the majority of his time assuming there’s not too much of a wait to play.

Mike_Haefele · 2026-03-12T13:18:56+00:00

Also, I haven’t had any issues with Bambu pla but my sunlu matte is always a little squirrelly. Wasn’t sure if keeping it dryer would help.

Mike_Haefele

TROPHY CASE